By day, Polly Markus is a busy commercial real estate agent in Auckland’s CBD. At night, she’s an online cooking sensation, creating delicious recipes for her 47,000 loyal Instagram followers.
That achievement alone is something the 32-year-old never imagined was possible before the Covid pandemic hit. But now she’s celebrating yet another mouth-watering accomplishment – the release of her very own cookbook!
“It’s definitely a pinch-me moment,” laughs Polly, who began cooking up a storm on social media two years ago to pass the long days of lockdown.
From the moment she shared her very first recipe on @miss_pollys_kitchen, things took off in a big way for the passionate foodie, and now there’s no looking back.
“I remember when I hit 500 followers,” she laughs. “I was like, ‘Oh, my goodness!’ I still feel like I’m just a home cook sharing recipes that I love.”
Food has always played an important role in Polly’s life. As a child, she would enthusiastically devour every-thing on her plate and her love of the culinary arts was nurtured by her dad Les, who spent endless hours teaching her everything he knew.
Beloved dad Les taught her to cook.
“My dad was a really good cook and he started teaching me from quite a young age,” smiles Polly. “And then it became my passion. I love cooking for friends and family.”
At age 22, she kissed her family goodbye and set off on her OE, landing work on superyachts. One of her jobs involved cooking for the crew of a luxury vessel and eventually she became the cook on a private yacht for a “lovely family”.
While she loved that time of her life, after three years of preparing breakfast, lunch and dinner every single day, she didn’t want to step foot in a kitchen for months when she returned home in 2015.
Polly’s travels revolved around food.
“I was so sick of it,” she recalls with a laugh. “I could barely even look at food for about six months.”
Instead, she happily threw herself into a career in real estate. But she never let go of the idea of sharing her love of food with the world and once she got her cooking mojo back, she wanted somewhere she could put her recipes so friends and family didn’t have to constantly ask how she’d created her latest dish.
When New Zealand was plunged into lockdown, and Polly suddenly found herself with no work and hours to fill stuck at home, she decided it was time to turn her dream into a reality – and it wasn’t just her nearest and dearest who couldn’t get enough of her tasty meal ideas.
“I started cooking and sharing recipes every second day, and I guess because everyone was at home cooking, it got a lot of traction. I haven’t really looked back.
“It always makes my day when I get messages from people who say that they didn’t like cooking or were intimidated by it before. It’s nice hearing that people enjoy cooking your recipes.”
Polly’s biggest supporters are her family. She says her mum Kim and siblings Lucy, 34, and Jack, 24, have been a big part of bringing her cookbook, titled Miss Polly’s Kitchen, to life, happily taste-testing her creations to make sure they’re perfect.
Polly’s dishes are always a hit with family and friends.
Sadly, Les, who Polly describes as “the cutest man in the whole world”, passed away six years ago, just four months after being diagnosed with cancer. He might not be here to share in Polly’s latest triumph, but she’s found a very special way to include him.
“He used to always make Gravlax salmon, so that’s his recipe in the book,” tells Polly. “We still always have that for breakfast on the weekend, so it’s very near and dear to my heart.”
